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Talking vs Acting

I have some thoughts on talking too big or too much about plans and ideas, versus acting on those plans and ideas.

Talking Too Much

Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern: When I get excited about an idea, whether for a creative project or otherwise, I feel inclined to enthusiastically share it with my friends. However, this leads to a problem: My talking too big or too much and not acting enough.

I’ll define both talking big and talking too much here:

Talking big is when we get very enthusiastic and hype up our ideas to others. We set expectations, both our own and others’, too high from the get-go, and tend to expend all our enthusiasm for the project by talking about it.

Talking too much is similar to “talking big”, but isn’t necessarily about hyping it up. Talking too much is what happens when we talk so much about our project that we don’t feel the need to work on it. I’ve found it’s easy to use up all my energy when this happens.

The two of these go very much hand-in-hand with each other, even though they differ in subtle ways.

Example: A few years back, I was just getting started with writing and had a brilliant idea. It was such a good idea, I had to share it with anyone who would listen. I talked so much, I built up my expectations too high and lost confidence in my draft only a couple pages in. I stopped writing for a while, after that.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic or talking about our work. Often, having a discussion with friends and colleagues can be very helpful to the process, especially when we get stuck on something. Marketing our work on social media can be a vital to building an audience and getting work. Where the problem lays is when there’s so much talking that it’s detrimental to getting the work done.

Taking Notes

When I find myself feeling like talking too big or too much, what I’ll do is take notes on whatever’s handy at the moment, whether it’s my Scrivener project file, OneNote on my phone, or in my pocket sketchbook. Taking notes and planning things out is an excellent way to make some progress and keep your ideas from getting lost in the ether.

Taking notes during conversation is a good idea, too. Especially so if we’re having a conversation or talking shop with someone. Take notes about everything. When I come up with an idea I like, I save it for future reference, because otherwise I’ll forget it or have to deal with the burden of trying to remember it.

Once we’ve taken notes, it’s that much easier to segue into taking more action on our projects. We can do this.

Anyway, I hope this post was helpful! Feel free to leave a comment or tweet at me if you’d like to share some thoughts on this! I’m open to suggestions for new blog posts, as well!